The Raspberry Pi Foundation in Cambridge just unveiled a new product, the Raspberry Pi Compute Module. Primarily built for those who want to incorporate Raspberry Pi as the core of their own printed circuit boards, the Compute Module is the brains of the Pi—complete with RAM and 4 gigabytes of eMMC Flash memory on board. It connects to a PCB with a DDR2 SODIMM interconnect. If you just want to experiment with the Compute Module but aren’t ready to get PCB’s fabricated, you can turn to their Compute Module IO Board, which is an open-source breakout board which lets you access all the appropriate ins and outs, including two serial display connectors, two serial camera connectors, and many more GPIO pins than are available the standard Pi models.

“We love hearing about what users are doing with their Raspberry Pis, and are constantly amazed at the range of projects, as well as the inventiveness and creativeness of the community,” said James Adams, Director of Hardware at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. “We are also aware that there are a very significant number of users out there who are embedding the Raspberry Pi into systems and even commercial products. We think there needs to be a better way to allow people to get their hands on this great technology in a more flexible form factor, but still keep things at a sensible price.”

Kits that include the Compute Module and IO Board will be available in June and Compute Modules alone will be available for purchase some time afterward. James says the Compute Module will be $30 when you purchase 100 boards, and the price will be “slightly higher” when you buy less.

Matt Richardson is a San Francisco-based creative technologist and Contributing Editor at MAKE. He’s the co-author of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi and the author of Getting Started with BeagleBone.